Unrefined Shea butter is a natural fatty substance that is extracted from the seed kernel of the shea tree in West and Central Africa. Our Shea butter is produced using traditional methods and has not been refined. It is raw, natural and in its purest form. Ghana has the best Shea butter in the world because the Shea nuts here have the most desirable chemical balance and the traditional processing methods create a very clean butter.
A brief summary of the traditional 12 steps to make Shea butter from harvested shea nuts:

• Harvest the nuts from the farm or wild
• Accumulate in piles or pits
• Heat the nuts – boil (preferred) or roast
• Dry the whole nuts (if boiled)
• De-husk the nuts to get kernels (usually cracked by hand)
• Dry the kernels and store in a secure place.
• For desirable shea nuts stop here. For butter continue.
• Crush the kernels
• Dry roast the crushed kernels
• Mill or pound/grind into paste
• Kneaded (water boiled or pressed) to form an emulsion to separate fats.
• Boil the oil (fat) to dry and clean by decanting to clarify the butter

Prepare for use, sale, or storage (cooled oil will congeal into boiled white/ cream colored butter).

The important chemical components in Shea butter and how to achieve quality Shea butter are;

• Free Fatty Acids (FFA) – Less FFA is desirable for quality Shea butter so mature nuts are used to produce less FFA Shea butter.
• Peroxides – Less peroxides is desirable so appropriate boiling will minimize peroxides
• Impurities – Like water, metal and dirt are removed by using sealed containers, taking care when grinding and filtering the butter.
• Moisture – Enables the growth of fungus which can spoil vast amounts of butter. It is prevented by boiling, storing nuts in jute sacks instead of fertilizer bags not adding water to the finished butter.
• High melting point of 32oc – 45oc.

The above are the processes and precautions AdinCraft adopts to produce its quality beautiful creamy pure Shea butter for the market.

Shea butter has so many uses and importance.

• It is the main sources of livelihood for rural women and children who are engaged in its gathering
• The most edible oil providing fatty acid and glycerol in the diet of people of Northern Ghana
• It is an unguent for the skin
• It has an antimicrobial properties, giving it a place in herbal medicine
• It is also used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries as an important raw material and/or a precursor for the manufacture of soaps, candles and cosmetics.
• It is used as a sedative or anodyne for the treatment of sprains, dislocations and relief of minor aches and pains
• It is used as anti-microbial agent for promotion of rapid healing of wounds, as a pan-releasing agent in bread baking
• It is used as lubricant for donkey carts
• As a cosmetics, it is used as a moisture for dressing hair and protection against the weather and sun
• Used to treat skin problems such as dryness, sunburns, burns, ulcers and dermatitis
• Used to massage pregnant women and children

Basically Shea butter is used in the

• Cosmetics industry to make soaps, lotions, shampoos, creams, lip balms, sunscreens, deodorants, toothpaste, etc
• Food and beverage industry to make margarine, pastry, chocolate, etc

Shea butter has the following chemical properties;

• Wrinkle reduction
• Blemish reduction
• Stretch mark reduction
• Sunscreens
• Eczema (Skin inflammation)
• Itching
• Treatment of sunburns, frost bite, hemorrhoids, skin damage and wounds and allergic dermatitis